After Joan Eardley work of art donated to charity shop, what wonderful treasure will be next?
There are extraordinary discoveries to be made both by charity shops and in them
“Summer, Joan, Exhibited, The Scottish Gallery.” As clues go, the note hinting at the identity of a painting donated to a charity shop in England’s East Midlands could have been a bit more helpful.
However, after some detective work, ‘The Scottish Gallery’ in Edinburgh discovered that the painting was the work of a notable artist, with the Joan in question being none other than the late, great Joan Eardley.
Gallery director Tommy Zyw described the painting as a “deeply observed and quietly powerful work, rooted in the landscape that she loved and defined her practice” at Catterline, Aberdeenshire, where Eardley lived the 1950s until her death in 1963.
There are those who lament the rise of charity shops on our streets. But reusing and recycling old things, while raising money for good causes, is no bad thing. And if it comes with the chance of making an extraordinary discovery, so much the better.
Who knows, the next find might just be the real secret behind the Da Vinci Code, the one true map of King Solomon's Mines, or perhaps even the Treasure of the Sierra Madre...
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